MS-13 is one of the most feared and brutal gangs in the world, and its members have been convicted of crimes all across the Western hemisphere.

MS-13 is one of the most feared and brutal gangs in the world, and its members have been convicted of crimes all across the Western hemisphere.

Photo: FILE

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Things to know about the MS13

1. The MS13 gang is known as Mara Salvatrucha. A recent federal indictment describing the gang notes that the name is a combination of Spanish slang terms: “Mara” is a word used in El Salvador for gang. “Salvatrucha” is combination of words, “Salva” an abbreviation for El Salvador and “trucha” which means, heads up.

A Mara Salvatrucha gang member attends a mass celebrated by Archbishop Luigi Pezzuto, Apostolic Nuncio to El Salvador, and head army and police chaplain Monsignor Fabio Colindres at a prison in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador, Monday in 2012.

1. The MS13 gang is known as Mara Salvatrucha. A recent federal indictment describing the gang notes that the name is a combination of Spanish slang terms: “Mara” is a word used in El Salvador for gang. ... more

Photo: Luis Romero, Associated Press

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Things to know about the MS13

2. The MS13 gang began in Los Angeles in the 1980s as a way for immigrants from El Salvador to protect themselves from predators in the immigrant community there.

A MS-13 gang member shows his tattoo identifying him as a member of that gang.

3. The MS13 gang consists primarily of people who are from Central America or are descendants of people from Central America. Most members have lineage from El Salvador, but it includes members with family ties to several countries, including Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and others.

J

ulian Garcia, a former MS13 gang member, had tattoos removed at the "Goodbye Tattoo" clinic in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Since the privately-funded clinic opened in 2000, volunteer workers have removed thousands of tattoos from young people who want to leave gang life behind.

3. The MS13 gang consists primarily of people who are from Central America or are descendants of people from Central America. Most members have lineage from El Salvador, but it includes members with family ties ... more

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Things to know about the MS13

4. While the MS13 gang is mostly tied to El Salvador, it is currently illegal to be a gang member there.

Back in 2009 in Houston, a group of the MS-13 gang members entered a beauty saloon located nearby at 2724 Crossview to , commit an armed robber and rape an employee.

5. MS13 gang members once created fear and drew attention with wild, dark tattoos that covered nearly their entire faces. Gang members had since stepped away from such a look in order to avoid being detected by law enforcement. The new generation of gang members are known to have far fewer tattoos, sometimes only some ink inside their lips or somewhere on their bodies that can be covered with clothing

This is a machete used by a MS-13 gang member during the armed robbery of a Houston Beauty Saloon back in 2009.

5. MS13 gang members once created fear and drew attention with wild, dark tattoos that covered nearly their entire faces. Gang members had since stepped away from such a look in order to avoid being detected by ... more

Photo: Courtesy Of The FBI

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Things to know about the MS13

6. Members of the MS13 gang who are illegally in the United States are known to use machetes instead of guns, as carrying the long-bladed weapon does not bring the same potential for a criminal charge as carrying a gun. Federal and state laws prohibit undocumented immigrants from having guns.

An MS-13 gang member shows his tattoo identifying him as a member of that gang. He participated in an armed robbery in a beauty saloon located at 2724 Crossview #106, in South West Houston, on January 17, 2009.

6. Members of the MS13 gang who are illegally in the United States are known to use machetes instead of guns, as carrying the long-bladed weapon does not bring the same potential for a criminal charge as ... more

Photo: Courtesy Of FBI

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Things to know about the MS13

7. Members of the MS13 are known to display the gang’s colors – blue and white. Those are the same colors as the El Salvador flag.

Members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang at the Ciudad Barrios prison in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador, Aug. 14, 2012.

8. MS13 gang members are known to mark their territory with graffiti of the letters MS as well as slogans unique to the gang.

An example of a tattoo of the gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). The Obama administration has labeled a violent Central American street gang as an international criminal organization subject to U.S. government sanctions, the first time this designation was given to such a group.

13. Female members can be “jumped into” the gang by sex acts with the gang’s members instead of being beaten.

Two members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang are escorted while being transferred to another prison after a clash between rival gangs at the female prison in San Salvador, El Salvador in 2005. (AP Photo/Luis Romero)

According to an El Salvadorian public opinion survey, 40 percent of people have "expressed a desire to migrate to another country." In addition, 84 percent of forced displacements in El Salvador are gang-related, according to a report by the Civil Society Roundtable Against Forced Displacement by Violence and Organized Crime in El Salvador.

An alleged MS-13 member accused of ordering gang hits in Houston - and listening over the phone as underlings carried them out - was indicted Wednesday in Maryland as part of a sweeping case against at least a dozen members of the bloody street gang.

An alleged MS-13 member accused of ordering gang hits in Houston - and listening over the phone as underlings carried them out - was indicted Wednesday in Maryland as part of a sweeping case against at least a

Alleged MS-13 member in Maryland accused of ordering gang hits in Houston

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An alleged MS-13 member accused of ordering gang hits in Houston - and listening over the phone as underlings carried them out - was indicted Wednesday in Maryland as part of a sweeping case against at least a dozen members of the bloody street gang.

Luis Arnoldo Flores-Reyes - also known as "Maloso" - was charged in a four-count indictment alleging everything from racketeering to extortion to drug trafficking over a three-year period starting in 2015. The 37-year-old alleged member of the Sailors Clique of MS-13 is in custody, according to a Department of Justice press release, though it wasn't immediately clear when or where he was arrested.

Eleven others have already been charged in the case.

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President Trump on Friday lashed out at El Salvador and Mexico over the presence of MS-13 gangs in the US.

Media: GeoBeats

The pattern of criminal violence described in court papers included everything from stabbings to shootings across Maryland, and in January 2018 it spilled over into Texas when Flores-Reyes phoned up a fellow gang member and ordered the slaying of rivals in Houston, according to court filings.

On Jan. 25, authorities charged, Flores-Reyes and other MS-13 members talked about buying a gun to avenge the murder of an MS-13 member in Houston, supposedly at the hands of a rival gang.

That same day, Flores-Reyes allegedly ordered the hits, and two days later he told his Houston counterparts that they'd need to carry out the killings if they wanted to be promoted.

After three days of planning and discussion, on Jan. 28, MS-13 members in Houston shot at and tried to kill rival gang members - all while Flores-Reyes and other gang members listened on the phone.

It's not clear whether they succeeded.

Although it was the only murder plot credited to Flores-Reyes in the lengthy federal court filing, it's not the only one mentioned.

In April 2017, another alleged gang member, Donald Roberto Mendez-Lopez, is accused of killing a homeless person living in a wooden shed in Maryland. With the help of another MS-13 member, Mendez-Lopez allegedly stabbed and beat the victim to death before leaving behind the body - all in an effort to win a promotion in the gang.

A few weeks later, Mendez-Lopez and his accomplice were both promoted to the rank of chequeo.

The court filings detail a number of other slayings and acts of violence, including a Jan. 8 beating Flores-Reyes allegedly ordered against another member as discipline for infractions against the gang.

The gang members met regularly to talk about gang structure and discuss snitches, according to the indictment. At times, the gang held "regional meetings" to discuss "programs" of cooperation between different cliques.

They bought guns to enforce their brutal regime, wrote rap songs celebrating their misdeeds, reeled in money from illicit drug deals and threatened anyone who they thought cooperated with the cops.

Many of the men targeted in the sprawling 30-page indictment were accused of extorting money from brothels, illegal beer stores and drug dealers in Langley Park, Maryland to help fund their criminal operations.

Some of them sent the funds back to El Salvador to bolster gang activity there, often addressing it to women to disguise its origins, authorities allege.

News of the arrest comes on the heels of another MS-13 hit that netted a series of charges in Harris County court.

Three men were collared in connection with the plot, which police intercepted just minutes before the planned slaying was to occur.

Formally known as La Mara Salvatrucha, the gang first formed in the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s, but it flourished most in the California prison system.

Today, it's primarily based in El Salvador with distinct cliques, like the one named in the latest indictment.

The gang has been a focal point of President Donald Trump's proposed immigration policies, and its also been cited as justification for legislation like Texas Senate Bill 4, which requires local police forces to cooperate with federal immigration officers.